


alchemy for dummies

by nonamebut



Category: LOONA (Korea Band), NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Internet Influencers AU, Multi, Online Rivalry, Side Vivi/Yves and Doyoung/Jaehyun, bc is it really a nonamebut fic without them, implied markhyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-09 04:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20489027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonamebut/pseuds/nonamebut
Summary: You know what they say: perhaps what annoys you the most about others is a trait you harbor yourself.





	alchemy for dummies

"He copied me again." Sooyoung hisses at her screen, swiping angrily away from prince97's channel to make another obnoxious subtweet about the annoying and infuriating Jung Jaehyun.

"Do you think he gains something out of this? Does he get off on stealing other people's ideas?" A dramatic pause. "_ My _ ideas, specifically?"

Jungeun groans, kicks at Sooyoung from where she's lying on the couch. She's still wearing her roller blades, annoyingly enough. ("Viviiiii, please take this girl's shoes away. Someone else deserves them more! And could actually pay the rent for them!" "Take it yourself, hag! Vivi's busy manning the bowling bar while you're here bumming it out in the employee backroom. Make yourself useful.")

At least Haseul—the ever so diplomatic Haseul, bless her heart—distantly dignifies Sooyoung with a response. "Hey, don't you think that accusation is a little too much? Everyone's covering I Like Me Better these days, so it's not like he's copying anyone in particular."

"Ha!" Sooyoung jabs a manicured nail at Haseul's general direction. "But you're saying he still copied the idea. Same thing!"

"Is it really?" pipes Yeojin, looking up from her English homework for the first time that night. "Maybe you're just overthinking it, just this once. It's not copying if you're hopping on the bandwagon. I think."

Haseul laughs softly from her place across Yeojin at the table and adds, "He's definitely not trying to provoke you. For this particular instance, at least."

But at this point Sooyoung's not paying attention at all, too busy crafting the shadiest tweet known to man. _ Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery _, she types furiously, feeling the great rush of gratification when she sends it off into the world.

(The world responds with 1k rts and 1.3k likes, which, considering the time frame and all, is not that bad.)

—

The thing is that Sooyoung isn't normally that petty. It just doesn't help that Jaehyun normally could be. Competitive, that is.

Their weird internet war is pretty mindless; none of them really stop to question why they keep pursuing it in the first place. But if they both thought about it, maybe this whole silly feud started out like this:

Sooyoung, like the good sweet girl she actually is in real life, volunteers every weekend. She doesn't brag about it at all on her SNS, really, but in some ways she is infamous—the netizens think they're slick when they sometimes call her "Nation's Granddaughter," but as long as none of them actually try stalking her or doxxing any personal information of anyone involved, it's all fine with her.

One day, she decides to post a selca with one of the sweet grandmothers to celebrate finally and successfully baking a cake together. It doesn't really show the two of them that much, since the subject of the photo is mostly the cake, but it's still pretty obvious who made the dessert. So all the comments gush over how lovely s97young is, and all that.

The next night Instagram flocks towards another similarly framed photo: one of some Thai cuisine, but this time being eaten by one Jung Jaehyun and his cute, loveable younger brother. _ Feeding the baby bro _ , says the caption, and all the replies go, _ awwwww _.

Sooyoung isn't a petty person, or so she thinks. But she takes a look at the sudden tags and threads on her SNS commenting on how similar she is with some other popular internet chump and a certain, foreign feeling starts to take root in her kind, kind heart.

It doesn't help that Jaehyun is a competitive person, because when he finds out that he managed to post a slightly related post with another fellow influencer _ and _ that said influencer posted a little something as if to get back at him—well. The rest is history, really.

—

Jaehyun only realizes that his fated nemesis actually attends the same university as him when he's stalking through some of her older content to find something good to post for her birthday. (No, he's not going to greet her. He's making the post out of pure _ spite _, alright?)

"Hey, Hyuckie." Sliding across their wooden floored hallway, he knocks once on his brother's door before opening it. "Did you know that s-ninety-seven-young is from our school?"

"Uh, yeah?" Donghyuck says shamelessly where he's sitting on Mark's thighs, which would normally be a very questionable, compromising position if Jaehyun didn't know how weirdly clingy the two best friends could get. "You didn't know? I didn't think you were that clueless!"

Mark, to his credit, looks appropriately embarrassed. "To be fair, she never leaves her real name anywhere, or any of the identities of her non influencer friends." He shifts awkwardly, a cue for Donghyuck to slide off his lap.

"Still, though." Though he will forever be Jaehyun's baby brother, there are times when Jaehyun genuinely gets intimidated by the little guy. Donghyuck coolly leans in to adjust Mark's glasses as he says, "It's not like we don't already know who she is, anyway. We see her nearly everyday, even."

Wait. Pause.

"What?!" The outburst makes both Mark and Donghyuck jump, like skittish kittens.

Mark audibly swallows. "We have mutual friends with Sooyoung? I'm surprised you guys haven't hung out before, with how you both run in the same circles..."

Huh.

—

Jaehyun and Sooyoung don't exactly plan their first meeting, but with how curious they've gotten over each other these past few weeks, it was only inevitable.

After all, who would have thought that both big shot internet celebrities would be crushing on two seniors who, ever so coincidentally, take a bajillion classes together? (Honestly, it would have been wilder if they fell for the exact same person, but alas, this is not that kind of story.)

"You," Jaehyun starts, squinting at the girl leaning on the wall beside him. "Don't tell me you're here to pick your boyfriend up."

"No," Sooyoung simpers. "I'm here to pick up my potential girlfriend, thanks."

"Oh?" But there's no time to react or dissect the newfound information, because then a particular group of seniors start exiting the building and snapping the two out of their strange stare off.

"I'm about to fetch my potential boyfriend, too," Jaehyun throws over his shoulder, feeling a great need to get even.

Reciprocity is a concept not foreign to Sooyoung, so she balances everything out with an, "Oh?"

If anyone sees the two sticking their tongues out each other as they walk off to their waiting company, no one says anything about it.

—

So. Maybe karma does exist... just not in the way either Sooyoung nor Jaehyun imagined. Not like this.

This, meaning sitting at Cafe Eclipse, thinking they scored a date with their long time crushes... only to find out it's actually a _ double _ date.

Nice.

"I'm so glad we all know each other," Vivi says, smiling cutely at Sooyoung, then shifting her gaze to Jaehyun and nodding at his date. Under the table, Sooyoung kicks at what she thinks is Jaehyun's chair.

"Oh!" Doyoung jumps awkwardly in his seat. Sooyoung's face burns as Jaehyun hides a snicker into his shoulder.

God bless Kim Doyoung, really, because he doesn't say anything about the little misconduct—but he does give Sooyoung a little pout, which to be honest, might just feel a lot more worse—and goes along with what Vivi said with otherwise complete faith and positivity. "That's right! I know Vivi since we're both business majors, but I didn't know you two were fellow S-N-S influencers."

Jaehyun smiles weakly and Sooyoung internally gloats knowing that the cause of his weak dimple attack is because of her.

All of a sudden Vivi gasps. "Hey, Sooyoung—isn't that Jungeun?"

They all look where Vivi is very politely and very vaguely gesturing to see two very familiar faces peering over the cafe cashier counter top. The two employees jump up from where they were squatting, sheepish smiles plastered onto their faces once they were caught spying.

"Hi, hyungie!" Donghyuck waves cheerily using his apron tie. "I thought I told you this already, but I started working here two days ago. Maybe I can get you guys something on discount...?"

Jungeun is not as sweet, even though she could totally act innocent and harmless... when it so benefits her. "Did you finally get the balls to ask out that chick you've been pining over for literal months?"

Sooyoung seethes on the inside. Jaehyun closes his eyes and decides to channel all his demonic energy for later, when he can safely use his phone without Doyoung thinking he's too much of a jerk.

As if the exposing comment from Jungeun awoke something from within Donghyuck, Jaehyun's sweet, sweet little baby brother decides to join in on the hag teasing. "Oh, I didn't know you guys were on a double date! All this time I thought that Jaehyun was gonna settle for being Doyoung's friend... and also pining forever and ever."

This time, Sooyoung can't muffle her snort. The tips of Jaehyun's ears go red, red, red.

Equivalent exchange, alright. The whole balancing, equalizing force that is karma. It's just one of the many basic natural laws of the universe: Sooyoung is petty, Jaehyun is competitive, and the both of them together? Total idiots.

(But at least it seems like, by the end of the afternoon, they could both be totally _ taken _ idiots. Now the both of them can fight it out with a whole new genre of content: boyfriend/girlfriend challenge videos. It's like a whole new world opening up just for them.)

x 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! kinda on a time crunch rn so i'll probably edit the notes later oof but i just rly wanted to say i hope u enjoy your weekend and i appreciate you if you made it this far


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